Hi! I’m Richard Rife. I grew up in Springville, Utah, the son of Gloria and Rusty Rife. They were wonderful parents. My good points are largely their doing—my shortcomings are not their responsibility.

As a young boy and teenager, I loved to play baseball. After high school, I served an LDS mission in South Korea. My mission has had a huge impact for good on my life.

I attended BYU and received a B.A. degree in English and a juris doctor degree from the law school. I married Janet Parsons, along the way, when she was too young to realize she could have done much better in the husband department. Still, she has borne with me (literally and figuratively), and we have six children (Laura, Mary, Brian, Todd, Jenny, and Michael) and five grandchildren (Connor, Ayden, Abigail, Sophie, and Andrew). Like all families, we have our ups and downs, but we do have a functional and happy family. Janet is my favorite person and dearest friend. Our children and grandchildren are a joy to us.

During my legal career (not to be confused with my illegal career, which fortunately I haven’t had), I have worked as a law clerk, trial lawyer, international business lawyer, privacy officer, and corporate in-house counsel.

I love the gospel and have served in various callings for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over the years, including elders quorum president, young men's president, branch president, bishop, mission president, temple sealer, and most importantly, Sunday School teacher and Primary pianist.

A main reason for this website is to host a web page for the Korea Daejeon Mission where Janet and I served as president from 2001–2004. We love the 330 missionaries who served with us in Korea. Our service in Korea is filled with never-to-be-forgotten memories. We hope the missionary database will help our missionaries keep in touch.

Another reason for the website is to offer, at no charge, a downloadable copy of my mission president journal. The journal was originally 530 pages of 11-point type. I have edited it to omit redundancies and to make it a readable 254 pages. It is overwhelmingly positive and edifying, but I have retained enough “negative” experiences and “challenges” to give the reader the full flavor of what it’s like to be a mission president. However, my editing has made it impossible to identify any missionary about whom a negative incident occurred.

This website also hosts my blog, "The Switch." When I served as a mission president in Korea, our missionaries said that in my presentations I "flipped the switch" between the spiritual/inspirational and the humorous. And so, in my blog, I will attempt to carry on that tradition of looking at the inspirational and funny things in life, sometimes in the same post.

An interesting fact is that I have lived 10 years of my life in South Korea: two years as a young missionary (1972–74), five years as a lawyer with the law firm of Kim & Chang in Seoul (1984–89), and three years as president of the Korea Daejeon Mission (2001–2004). I love Korea and the Korean people. My life has been greatly enriched by my association with Korea and Koreans.

I like to write, read, golf, and listen to music. I used to play the piano well, when I was young enough that my mother could force me to practice. I hope to take it up again on my own volition. Although I don’t like to do it, I exercise almost every day and yet it has little impact on my condition—which is what doctors like to refer to as a little bit of a weight problem. I used to like to travel, but now I’m happy to stay home.

My fondest desire is to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. I am not a scholar of the scriptures, but I love to read them and try to apply their teachings in my life. I am reverent about the Atonement, but am generally lighthearted (lightminded?) about life and love to see the humor in any situation.